than fifteen or twenty feet, before they
all beheld, not a hundred yards off, a vast cataract of water rolling
down the river gorge, sweeping from side to side, as it advanced, and
converting the whole valley into a roaring torrent. Their temporary
bridge was swept away and snapped in pieces like a reed, and for a
moment De Walden feared that even the great yellow-wood in which they
had found refuge, might experience a like fate. It stood firm, however,
and the missionary was able to assure his companions that, as the flood
was not likely to rise higher, they were in comparative safety. But
they would have to pass the night, and possibly the next day, in their
present position, as it would be madness to attempt breasting the flood,
until its fury had spent itself. They had fortunately taken their
morning meal on the further bank, and each had some remains of it in his
wallet But it was a dreary prospect at best, and if the rain should
again fall there would be the greatest danger lest the cold and
weariness should so benumb their limbs, that they would be unable to
retain their hold on the branches.

"What has become of Lion?" Nick managed to ask of Wilmore, who was
niched near him, in a hollow formed by the junction of three boughs in
one of the largest limbs of the yellow-wood. "I haven't seen him since
we got on the tree."

"Poor old boy," returned Frank, "he was swept down the stream, when the
fir was carried away. I tried to catch him by the collar, but couldn't.
The last thing I saw of him was his black head in the midst of the
boiling waters. I think I would sooner have been drowned myself!"

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

STRANGE COMPANY--CAPTURED AGAIN--THE KAFFIR VILLAGE--CHUMA OBDURATE--
LAVIE'S MISSION--THE WIZARD--A BOND OF FELLOWSHIP.

It was a long and terrible night. The heaven was covered with vast
masses of inky clouds, which the gale drove rapidly before it; and
occasionally there were sharp bursts of rain, from which even the dense
foliage of the tree in which they were lodged but imperfectly screened
them. The howling of the wind round them, and the roaring of the
torrent below, rendered all attempts to converse with one another
impossible. They could only cling to their place of refuge, and count
the weary minutes as they passed, gazing anxiously on the eastern sky in
the hope of seeing there the first faint streaks of dawn.

A little after midnight the fury of the elements seemed to have r